September, 2015:

“Sherman’s Lagoon is an imaginary lagoon somewhere in the tropics, inhabited by a cast of sea creatures whose lives are curiously similar to our own. Through his comic strip, cartoonist Jim Toomey explores many of the issues that we face daily in our world on dry land. By putting them in a different context, he helps us laugh at ourselves. His characters attempt new business ventures, go on disastrous dates, try fad diets and read the latest best-selling books. But, they also have problems that are unique to fish. Should you bring shrimp to the holiday party? Will shrimp be there?” That’s the introduction to this long-running on-line comic strip. Now Andrews McMeel Publishing present Sherman’s Lagoon: Tales from the Deep That Are Completely Fabricated, the 20th trade paperback collection in full color. It’s also available as a PDF download.

IDW presents a special full-color hardcover graphic novel, tied in with the upcoming release of Skylanders 5. “The official story leading into this year’s all-new Skylanders video game! The citizens of Skylands are in their most desperate hour as Kaos begins to tear the world apart with his newfound powers. Spyro and an elite group of Skylanders must enter an ancient and unknown part of Skylands and find the only hope left that can stand against Kaos’ might!” Written by Ron Marz and David Rodriguez, with illustrations by Fico Ossio,Skylanders: Rift Into Overdrive hits the shelves this week.

Last year DC Comics’ Vertigo line introduced an interesting new take on the killer werewolf trope with the full-color mini-series Wolf Moon, written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Jeremy Haun. In it the werewolf is not a person, or even a group of people: It’s a malevolent transforming spirit that hops from person to person every rise of the full moon, making it difficult to track and nearly impossible to stop. Dillon was one of the werewolf’s former targets — and he is determined to find the werewolf spirit and destroy it once and for all. Now just in time for Halloween, Vertigo have announced that Wolf Moon #1 to #6 have been collected in a single trade paperback edition coming in late October.

From out of nowhere… Well, actually, from Mexico. Un Gallo con Mucho Huevos (A Rooster with Many Eggs) is the first animated feature film produced in Mexico to receive wide distribution in the U.S. This Labor Day weekend in was released in nearly 400 theaters in Spanish with English subtitles, though a version dubbed in English is due to arrive in a couple of weeks. Cartoon Brew has some extensive coverage of it. The story is pretty familiar: A young rooster lives on a farm (with anthropomorphic chickens and anthropomorphic eggs; go figure) which is hurting financially, and he must figure out a way to save it. Admittedly his solution, which smacks of real-life cock-fighting, might make some folks a bit uncomfortable — we’ll see. Distributor Huevocartoon (they have this thing for eggs…) have firmly set their sites on the U.S. animation market.

If you haven’t been reading the newly-reinvigorated Howard the Duck comic book series from Marvel Comics… well, why haven’t you?? Taking flight from his post-credits cameo in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie (and seemingly having gotten over that whole George Lucas… thing…) Howard has been basking in the attention brought to him by this new full-color comic written by Chip Zdarsky and illustrated by Joe Quinones. In case you need to do some catching up, this October Marvel is releasing issues # 1 through #5 of the new Howard series collected together in a single trade paperback, Howard the Duck Volume 0: What The Duck. BleedingCool.com has an extensive background piece on Howard in general and the new series in particular.

Disney’s favorite dragon (well, unless you count Malificent) returns later this month when Figment (the on-again/off-again mascot of Disney’s EPCOT Center in Florida) comes back in his second full-color comic book miniseries, appropriately titled Figment 2. From Comic Book Resources: “Critically acclaimed writer Jim Zub returns alongside artist Ramon Bachs for the next chapter in the lives of the enigmatic inventor Dreamfinder and the legendary Figment! Thrust forward into the present day, these two time-travelling explorers must brave a modern world as new and unexpected dangers lie before them. Gone over 100 years, our imaginative duo are known the world over, and must struggle to live up to their own legend. But with their greatest challenges still ahead, can they embody their own legacy, or will it ultimately be their undoing?” Marvel.com also has an extensive write-up of the new series.